The present invention relates to a rotor of an electrical machine and particularly to winding modules secured to a rotor body with filler strips maintaining the windings in place. The present invention also relates to the electrical connections between the modules and the rotor body and between the modules per se and to methods of effecting the electrical connections during assembly.
Conventional electrical machines have rotors that support field windings. These rotors typically have rotor cores with axial slots that receive each turn of the field windings. Wedges are typically used to close the rotor slots to restrain the windings against the centrifugal forces that arise as the rotor spins. There are certain disadvantages to this type of construction, e.g., assembly of the windings in the rotor is inefficient. Another type of electrical machine has been proposed and constructed which eliminates many of the disadvantages of those prior conventional electrical machines.
In such newer constructions, preformed modular field windings are installed about the rotor. The rotor has poles with defined pole faces and preferably parallel sides adjacent to the pole faces. A winding module fits over the parallel sides of the poles. The modular field windings include winding support braces axially spaced from one another for holding the winding turns. The winding braces include support elements circumferentially spaced from one another along the long side of the windings and each brace includes a plurality of windings between support elements of the winding support brace. The braces collectively hold a nested assembly of windings and the braces and windings are secured to the rotor by a locking mechanism. It will be appreciated that the rotor may support at least a pair of modular windings along opposite poles. Also, the winding braces are fitted to each modular winding prior to its assembly with the rotor.